Child, parent, and ecological factors related to kindergarten success for Latino children: A mixed-methods investigation

Between the ages of five and seven, the ecologies of children in industrialized countries change as they undergo a critical life transition: the movement into formal schooling. For Latino children who are marginalized by poverty and ethnic minority status, this transition assumes even greater importance. As such, understanding the factors that influence Latino children's school transition and subsequent performance in kindergarten is essential.; An ecological approach to understanding children's school success considers the child not in isolation, but as embedded in the contexts of home, school, neighborhood, and society. However, little is known about such processes as they regard early school achievement among Latino children, who represent an increasingly large percentage of the U.S. school population.; Using an integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children developed by Garcia Coll and colleagues, this dissertation study examined relations among child factors such as self-regulation and prosocial skills, and ecological factors such as residential safety and parents' cultural beliefs, and explored their influence on children's performance in kindergarten. Data were drawn from the School Transitions Study (STS). Fifty-eight kindergarten children and 6 Latina mothers (of children in this sample) who completed ethnographic interviews served as participants.; Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that children's self-regulation and prosocial skills were associated with their academic skills and engagement in kindergarten. Parents' beliefs and practices regarding children's social/behavioral development were related to children's academic skills and engagement, but children's self-regulation skills fully mediated these relations. Parents' academic beliefs and practices were related to their residential safety and maternal education. Qualitative descriptive analyses of interviews resulted in the identification of five themes; most notably, that education unfolds within the context of relationships. A range of mothers' beliefs regarding children's learning was demonstrated, defying limited, stereotypic notions of Latino parents' belief systems. Findings are discussed with regard to their implications for classroom practices that build upon Latino children's strengths and for building supportive home-school partnerships between Latino families and schools.